U.S. anti-Muslim rhetoric framed Muslim identity as a permanent stain disqualifying one from office

Evidence

During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, right-wing activists accused Barack Obama of being a closet Muslim, a secret Muslim, and a sleeper cell agent. “Once a Muslim, always a Muslim,” declared the conservative political commentator Debbie Schlussel. The proof, critics claimed, was everywhere: Obama’s middle name, Hussein; the fact that he spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, allegedly attending a Muslim school; the fact that his father was Muslim. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1362

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on racialization of Muslims in America (e.g. Moustafa Bayoumi’s ‘How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?’) and to post-race discourse literature. — connects to: U.S. lawmakers framed devout Muslim practice as treasonous grounds for military exclusion — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 285; A senior Trump official publicly framed Obama’s Muslim heritage as disloyalty to America.
• SEED: Angle: how ‘Muslim’ functions as a one-drop-rule racial category in American politics — a stain that cannot be washed off, unlike other religious identities.